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Crew member of hijacked Ukrainian ship dies
A crew member aboard a hijacked Ukrainian ship has died, as Somalia pirates who seized the vessel transporting weapons to Kenya said the vessel has been surrounded by three foreign warships. Andrew Mwangura, coordinator of the East Africa Seafarers' Association, said the crew member died of natural causes but confirmed that the remaining 20 others are safe. "One of the crew members died on Sunday. We confirmed that he was sick but the remaining crew are safe," Mwangura told Xinhua by telephone on Monday. Somali news portals quoted Abdi Salan Khalif, commissioner of the coastal town of Harardhere, Somalia, as saying the pirates told town elders the man died of problems relating to high blood pressure. Khalif said the pirates, who were communicating with the elders and the U.S. Navy by radio, reported they were holding the crew in a hot part of the ship. Mwangura said the weapons in the Belize-flagged MV Faina vessel carrying an authorized Ukrainian government arms shipment appear to belong to south Sudan, which is barred from arms sales under a 2005 U.N.-brokered peace deal. "One of the cargo arrived at the port of Mombasa in October last year, two in February this year. The seized load of 33 Russian-built T-72 tanks and some ammunition was the fourth cargo with military equipment for southern Sudan," Mwangura said. But the Kenyan government spokesman Alfred Mutua said pirates are spreading what he called "alarming propaganda" that the seized weapons do not belong to Kenya's armed forces. "There have been alarming propaganda by the pirates to media that the weapons are not for the Kenyan military. This, is a tactic by the terrorists to try and fend off reprisals against them," said Mutua. "The Kenyan government will not engage in answering back to terrorists who have hijacked important military equipment paid for by the Kenyan tax payer for use by the Kenyan Military," he added. Posted by: Fred 2008-09-30 |
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